Follis / Fals - two standing figures type Arab-Byzantine

Produced in the transitional decades after the Arab conquest of Byzantine Syria, these coins were deliberately modeled on Byzantine copper issues still circulating in the region — a pragmatic decision by Umayyad administrators who understood that a familiar coin face inspired market confidence far better than an unfamiliar one. The caliphate would not develop a fully independent coinage until Abd al-Malik's sweeping monetary reform of 696–697 CE, which abolished figural imagery entirely.

Album 3513 encompasses considerable variety in mint and execution; attribution of individual specimens to specific Syrian mints remains contested.